


we are the only thing keeping each other alive (and we won't last much longer)

by Misty_Reeyus



Category: Nier Gestalt | Nier
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Post-Ending D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-12 01:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7079536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misty_Reeyus/pseuds/Misty_Reeyus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yonah sticks with Kainé because there’s nowhere else for her to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we are the only thing keeping each other alive (and we won't last much longer)

Yonah sticks with Kainé because there’s nowhere else for her to go.

That’s what Yonah claims, anyway; though to Kainé’s credit, she _tries_ to drop the girl off at her old hometown regardless. But Yonah refuses with surprising vehemence, insisting that with the twins both dead, she doesn’t have anyone there to go back to.

“Besides,” Yonah adds, as her body shakes with the force of a violent cough, “they ran the whole village. Without them, it won’t last much longer.”

“…Huh,” Kainé says, as Popola’s scream rings on echo in her head. “Fucking whoops then.”

Kainé’s not really protesting, though. Any company’s better than none and she doesn’t have anyone else either, not anymore. Emil is dead, and so is Weiss, and even Tyrann is somehow just inexplicably _gone_ , and also…also…

Kainé shakes her head. She’s not sure where that line of thought was going.

* * *

Kainé can’t hear the Shades anymore but she still understands their nature, so she doesn’t pick fights. By day, most Shades don’t even try to bother her or Yonah, and by night, Kainé lights a fire that keeps all but the most desperate stragglers at bay. Yonah is frail and can’t fight worth shit, so Kainé lets her sleep closest to the flames while she herself keeps watch, and it’s only at morning’s light that Kainé finally lets herself pass out.

Yonah’s always ready and waiting for her when she awakens a few hours later, and together, they get back on the move. Kainé slices up whatever poor animal is nearest for dinner and digs up herbs that almost always go to Yonah instead of herself, and Yonah, bold thing that she is, grows into the habit of kissing Kainé’s cheeks in gratitude. Sometimes she even calls Kainé _my hero_ , though Kainé’s never quite sure whether the girl fully means it.

After all, Kainé hasn’t really saved Yonah from anything.

After all, Yonah is still dying.

* * *

Black ribbons are still snaking down Yonah’s arms and legs, still branding unforgiving judgment into pale skin, still spelling out doom in cursed runes neither of them can read. The Black Scrawl is slowly but steadily taking her, and both of them know it, and the only people who might have been able to do anything about it—those damned twins, _again_ , and that fucking book—are dead.

Again. Fucking whoops.

It gets worse at night, when the marks bleed ever darker and faster while Yonah groans and fidgets in her sleep. Kainé can’t do much for her other than feed the fire so she’d never admit to doing all the other stuff. To putting her hand in Yonah’s to be squeezed during every unconscious wave of pain, or to brushing aside sweaty bangs to keep her comfortable, or to fluttering her lips over Yonah’s forehead in a stupidly sentimental lapse of judgment.

A while after the kiss, Yonah goes still again. Her hand in Kainé’s loosens its grip, and her scrunched up face relaxes slightly as the marks slink back beneath her tattered dress. The Scrawl blips and blinks until it fades, leaving the skin pure, unmarred, beautiful—but Kainé finds little assurance in the retreat.

It’s only a matter of time before it comes right back.


End file.
